Several things seem clear in the aftermath of that contentious meeting last week at Coleman Middle School over the proposal to construct a cell phone tower on the school’s campus:
*If there’s a serious nay-saying element, they will always outnumber and outshout their opposition. It’s the dynamics of such gatherings.
*No principal should be put on the spot and in a position that belongs to engineers.
*A lot of South Tampa parents will now need to make good on those fund-raising boasts. In the midst of a severe budget crunch, Coleman lost $36,000 per year in lease payments from Collier Enterprises II of Tampa.
*Because of the need for increasingly expanding cell phone service, a new tower will go up nearby anyhow. Just not literally on the campus, where it would have brought Coleman approximately $430,000 over 10 years.